Soulful Computing Newsletter
Weekly resources about our rapidly evolving cyborganic relationship with technology. Topics include humanity inside computers, technology culture, digital artifacts, and augmented productivity for 21st-century knowledge work.
Election Day 2020
Hello friend, Today is Election Day in the United States in the middle of a pandemic. Citizens will participate in a presidential election that will be a crucible for the American form of Democracy. President Donald J. Trump has spent the last four years characterizing the election process in the
Error 1202
Aboard the Lunar Module Eagle (LM-5), Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were 30,000 feet above the moon surface and rapidly descending. It was July 24, 1969, and The Apollo 11 mission had been proceeding relatively smoothly. About 4 hours later, the astronauts would make history as a man took
(Not So) Quiet, Please
Dak Prescott, the 27-year-old quarterback for NFL's Dallas Cowboys, suffered an especially gruesome ankle injury last Sunday. I don't recommend looking it up. Suffice it to say, his season is over, and his career as a professional athlete forever altered. The Cowboys were hosting the New
Bricolage 001
Hello friend, When I started this Soulful Computing newsletter project, I promised myself that I would prioritize consistent publication. I'll send out a newsletter every week, no matter what. People talk about a productivity technique called "don't break the chain." It's often
Eye to Eye
Dressed in a long-sleeved, untucked white shirt, he climbs onto a platform in front of the audience. For the next ten minutes, he says nothing at all as he looks out into the eyes of his followers. Each has paid a small fee to receive this gentle, loving gaze. A
Press 1 to Continue
I had a meeting with a colleague a few days ago, and she requested that instead of a video chat over Zoom, we should pick up the phone and have an old-fashioned audio-only conversation like human beings. Our chat turned to phone calls on landlines and what it was like
Time is Weird in 2020
Time is weird in 2020, wouldn't you agree? I've been thinking a lot lately about a practice I learned from my friend, Jamie Zigelbaum, when we were working together at his studio in the, to put it mildly, "chimeric" building at 33 Flatbush Avenue
Freediving into a Spreadsheet
Dan Bricklin's professors at the Harvard Business School thought he was wasting his time creating an electronic substitute for the paper ledgers he and his classmates were using to complete their coursework. In the 1970s, data entry was for secretarial pool transcription and the technicians keeping the mainframe
Happy Upgrade Day
Happy Upgrade Day. You are on an operating table, immobilized, but fully awake. You glance sideways and see the brain implant in a sterile package marked with the Neuralink logo. It is smaller than you anticipated. "You may feel a little pressure," says the robotic surgeon, but you
Study With Us
I recently joined a global study group. I spend so many hours with these people during the pandemic that I now call them my friends. They have no idea that I exist. When I need a boost of focus, I put all my study group's YouTube videos on